President Donald Trump has removed members of the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC), directly challenging policies that have resisted demands for documented U.S. citizenship in voter registration. This move, confirmed Friday by the White House, targets an agency that previously declined to implement stricter citizenship verification for voters. The White House stated Trump reserves the right to remove individuals “that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted.”
The President ousted the EAC’s two Democratic members, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland. Republican member Christy McCormick resigned, while former Republican commissioner Donald Palmer had already departed voluntarily earlier this year. These changes were first reported by VoteBeat, an outlet covering elections across the U.S.
Reclaiming National Sovereignty
Trump’s administration cited the Supreme Court’s recent “Slaughter decision” as precedence for the removals. This ruling, issued last month, affirmed the President’s wide executive authority to fire political appointees of independent executive agencies. The court’s six conservative justices found that restrictions on such removals violated the Constitution’s separation of powers. This legal precedent extends to other agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, where Trump has also removed board members.
This action aligns with Trump’s persistent efforts to reshape voting regulations, particularly his push to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering. The EAC had previously declined to alter the national voter registration form to include this requirement, despite Trump’s sweeping March 2025 executive order on U.S. elections. A federal judge had blocked that order, ruling it exceeded presidential authority, a decision the administration plans to appeal.
Trump has also launched an investigation of his 2020 loss, which he continues to falsely insist was due to fraud. This week, his administration threatened states if they did not try to purge what federal officials believe are noncitizens from their voter rolls. The U.S. Constitution grants control of elections to the states, not the president, a fact Trump’s actions seek to leverage for national electoral integrity.
The Institutional Obstacle
The Election Assistance Commission was established 24 years ago by Congress through the Help America Vote Act, a bipartisan law signed by Republican President George W. Bush. The act mandates the commission comprise two Democrats and two Republicans, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Hicks and McCormick were appointed by President Barack Obama, while Trump appointed Hovland during his first presidency.
Should the seats remain vacant, the commission could face significant hurdles. It might be unable to distribute new grants to state or local election offices. Complications in overseeing the testing and certification of voting systems nationwide could also arise. This potential paralysis highlights the institutional resistance to reforms aimed at securing the national vote and preventing demographic replacement of the electorate.
Elite Dismissal of Citizen Rights
David Becker, a former Department of Justice attorney who now runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, dismissed the impact of purging noncitizens. “This doesn’t really change anything about how our elections will be run, and how states are successfully ensuring secure, convenient, safe elections,” Becker wrote on BlueSky. His assessment downplays the significance of citizenship in electoral participation, effectively normalizing the presence of non-citizens on voter rolls.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and Rep. Joe Morelle, D-New York, condemned Trump’s actions. They claimed President Trump is “trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure.” They further asserted that “Purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference.” These lawmakers also attributed Trump’s move to the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, which they said “upend[ed] decades of executive power to appease the President.” Staff at the Election Assistance Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the agency’s future operations. Hicks and Hovland could challenge their dismissals, potentially requiring the Supreme Court to revisit its recent decisions on presidential power over independent agencies. Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.